Lakeland PBS Wins Four ‘Eric Sevareid’ Journalism Awards

Charlie Yaeger (left) and Hanky Hazelton with Eric Sevareid Awards won for their stories on “Lakeland News.” (Not pictured: Chaz Mootz)

Bemidji, MN, April 11, 2024 — Lakeland PBS was honored recently with four Eric Sevareid Awards from the Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association. All four stories aired on the station’s “Lakeland News” newscasts.

A story by Lakeland Sports Director Charlie Yaeger titled “Improving Accessibility at Bemidji State” earned first-place honors in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion category. The story chronicled the efforts underway at Bemidji State University to improve wheelchair accessibility on campus for people with disabilities.

“Lakeland News” also earned two of the three awards given for sports reporting in its division. One of the awards also went to Yaeger for his story on Organ Donor Awareness Day at Bemidji State. The other sports award went to former Lakeland Sports Director Chaz Mootz for his profile on former Bemidji State football player Bryce Duffy’s transition to coaching after suffering a serious neck injury. Both were honored with Awards of Merit.

Hanky Hazelton also won an Award of Merit in the Hard Feature category for his story on a Pierz high school student who invented a machine that is the first of its kind and will save farmers from entrapment or suffocating inside their grain bins.

“Lakeland News” competed in the Small Market Division along with television stations from 13 different television markets in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. Some of the markets included in this division include Duluth, Rochester, Sioux City, Iowa, and Bismarck, North Dakota.

“This is quite an honor for Lakeland PBS, ‘Lakeland News,’” said Lakeland News Director Dennis Weimann. “It takes exceptional work to be honored with a Sevareid Award. There are many bigger stations with bigger budgets than us producing quality work so to win four awards this year is really a credit to the work our news team has done this past year.”

The Eric Sevareid Awards are named for the North Dakota-born and University of Minnesota-educated journalist best known for his work as a correspondent for CBS Radio and Television. “Lakeland News” on Lakeland PBS is the only live local newscast originating in north-central Minnesota.

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About Lakeland PBS

Lakeland PBS is a 501c3 non-profit that is unique in the fact that the corporation is owned by the public that it serves. Our headquarters is a state-of-the-art facility located in Bemidji, with a satellite office and studio facility located in Brainerd. The corporation operates two full power digital television broadcast stations: KAWE (Bemidji) serving northern Minnesota and KAWB (Brainerd), serving central Minnesota. Since signing on the air in June 1, 1980 Lakeland PBS has been a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) affiliate that produces, acquires and airs programs that are relevant to our rural and culturally diverse region. Lakeland PBS content is available via live stream and on-demand through our website, lptv.org, and the free PBS App.